I asked Steve Chaplin to explain and give us details about how Virtual Pool 4 sets up as far as online goes.Ill start by my question I asked on Facebook. and then youll have Steve Chaplin's response which Ive edited together to make it easier to read instead of all the individual posts on Facebook.

9balldotcom; Ok heres the scenario.Im playing vp4 offline version and online version is now available.Is there going to be two versions on my hard drive or is it a update patch that i have to install to make it online.Or is it a browser integrated game so i dont need to install anythiing.can you please explain how it will work as well as remind people of costings and subscription fees.?

Steve Chaplin's response

" So to get going with VP Online, you register first on the VP4 Online web site. This is required as you must have an account to play. Payment is not required to get started. After registering the VP4 Online installer download starts and when it finishes you open the installer and install VP4 Online to your hard drive. When you start up VP4 Online you will have a login that takes the same user name and password as the VP4 Online website. I may put together a launcher from the web site so double login is not required. When you login you will see the lobby, players, rooms, etc. You can chat there, enter rooms, etc. The lobby is similar to what we used in GSA, but has my take on it of course and some of the integration with the website comes through here to as far as information available. When you try to enter a room that you don't have assets for the system will automatically download them. Any updates are also automatically downloaded. So you should never have to do any manual updates again."

The website has 3 basic levels (non-admin) of users. Guests, Players Non Gratis, and Players. Guests have very limited access on the website and can't play at all. To raise the level to Player Non Gratis requires registration, then they can download VP4 Online and start playing. Player Non Gratis will have pretty much full access on the website but there will be some limitations on what they can do. To be a full player requires putting in payment of $9.99 to purchase $VP. These $VP then can be used for payment for event entry and also to purchase virtual goods. The only pay requirement beyond that is that we require a once yearly $9.99 of $VP. There are several admin levels too, we have Tournament Directors, Ladder Directors, League Directors, an overseer called and Event Director, Moderators, and Super Admin (your truly). The directors are in charge of running events, the moderators are for moderating chat and players. Super Admin is for site administration. These people do not have to pay the base $9.99 rate of course as they are essentially working for free, hopefully enjoying it, in spite of having to put up with some complaints from players, lol, don't they always seem to do that. This is what I call a modified freemium model. It is 100% free with limitations. But you can get full access for a very low yearly payment, so it is not really a subscription model either.

We are awarding prize money in $VP for all events, plus points. The ranking system is a points based system. But unlike some other online games, we don't turn your money into points which can't be spent. $VP you win can be used to purchase other event entries. "

I'm very pleased to see the release of VP4, I'm banging away offline, gave Curly something to think about But naturally its Online play I want :-) and you fooled me for a few seconds, well minutes actually, to go hunting for the Download page Then I read your post again and saw this: 9balldotcom; Ok heres the scenario So I guess that means you were just imagining things right.

Anyway I'll be around much more in the future now and I'm happy to join the Beta testers if Steve needs more

9balldotcom wrote:How does Virtual Pool 4 work? We are awarding prize money in $VP for all events, plus points. The ranking system is a points based system. But unlike some other online games, we don't turn your money into points which can't be spent. $VP you win can be used to purchase other event entries. "

Probably an obvious thing to ask, but to be sure: Can you win back your yearly purchase of $ 9.99, if you win enough tournaments? Or do you have to pay this in real dollars?

Last edited by Hanterp on Wed Aug 22, 2012 6:51 am, edited 1 time in total.

Ok so maybe I'm being daft but I just couldn't figure this out by reading the forums/FB page. If you purchase VP4 offline now, will you also get access to VP4 online or is that something you have to pay separately? I'm getting the impression that it's a free upgrade but I'd very much like to get a confirmation before purchasing VP4.

Ok so maybe I'm being daft but I just couldn't figure this out by reading the forums/FB page. If you purchase VP4 offline now, will you also get access to VP4 online or is that something you have to pay separately? I'm getting the impression that it's a free upgrade but I'd very much like to get a confirmation before purchasing VP4.

Ill explain in as simple terms as I can.

1 Virtual Pool offline was released Aug 15th2 Virtual Pool online is a separate game meaning that eventually you would have two versions of VP4 on your hard drive.3 You do not need to buy Virtual Pool 4 offline in order to download and play the online version when its available.4 For the rest of the explanation of Virtual Pool 4 online I suggest you read the article near the bottom of this page http://www.9balldotcom.co.uk/The article is titled"How does Virtual Pool 4 work?"it will tell you all other relevant info including costs of VP4 online.

So someone could simply register and play VP4 for free (but only online and with limitations such as tournament play)?

Steve Chaplin wrote:To be a full player requires putting in payment of $9.99 to purchase $VP. These $VP then can be used for payment for event entry ... The only pay requirement beyond that is that we require a once yearly $9.99 of $VP.

To get full access to the online game a player has an annual recurring cost of $9.99 (£6.17 in sterling at the time of posting).

This is confusing. Suppose I run out of $VP before the end of the year. Does that mean I can't play online?

To be a full player requires putting in payment of $9.99 to purchase $VP. These $VP then can be used for payment for event entry and also to purchase virtual goods. The only pay requirement beyond that is that we require a once yearly $9.99 of $VP.